Summary:

Ecosystem simulation models use descriptive input parameters to establish the physiology, biochemistry, structure, and allocation patterns of vegetation functional types, or biomes. For single-stand simulations, it is possible to measure required input parameters; however, as spatial resolution increases, data availability decreases, and generalized biome parameterizations are then required. Undocumented parameter selection and unknown model sensitivity to parameter variation for larger-resolution simulations are currently the major limitations to global and regional modeling. This data set contains documented input parameters of major natural temperate biomes in the United States for use with the BIOME-BGC Terrestrial Ecosystem Model, a process-based ecosystem simulation model. The sensitivity of BIOME-BGC (BioGeoChemistry) model outputs to variations in these input parameters was evaluated by White et al. (2000). Parameter groups in this data set include the following: turnover and mortality; allocation; carbon to nitrogen ratios(C:N); the percent of plant material in labile, cellulose, and lignin pools; leaf morphology; leaf conductance rates and limitations; canopy water interception and light extinction; and the percent of leaf nitrogen in Rubisco (i.e., ribulosebisphosphate-1,5-carboxylase/oxygenase). Input parameters may also be useful in other process-based models.

The data are presented in five files and are in a format suitable for statistical analysis by means of a wide variety of statistical analysis packages. The data represent various aspects of primary production for a number of plant species found in natural temperate biomes. Data for each species were compiled from literature to allow direct comparison and calculation of mean, standard deviation, etc., among differing instances of data collection for a given species in similar conditions.

Data Format:

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) for Biogeochemistry Dynamics organized and formatted these data for long-term archive. Tables in Appendix A (White et al. 2000) were grouped according to similar formats and placed into a spreadsheet format and stored as ASCII comma-separated-value (.csv) files. Missing values are represented by -999. Additional columns, including table number, parameter description, unit of measure, and foliage nature, were added to the spreadsheets so that each row was fully documented. The 19 tables were grouped into 5 files as follows: